Bill Kristol Predicts...

[Stavros]

According to this article in today's Independent-

A leading conservative has claimed that Donald Trump will be challenged for the presidency by a impressive independent candidate with a “real chance” of beating the Republican nominee.
In a tweet on Sunday evening, Bill Kristol, an outspoken critic of Mr Trump and editor of the Weekly Standard, a respected conservative magazine, declined to give further details.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-elections/bill-kristol-says-impressive-candidate-set-to-enter-race-and-challenge-donald-trump-a7056371.html

[flabbybody]

This story got a lot of coverage here during the 3 day Memorial weekend. My reaction ....who the fuck is Bill Kristol? I've seen him on TV a few times and he seems to be a GOP talking head with a lunatic agenda against Trump, but he hates Hillary as well.
He's been stewing since his boy Jeb crashed and burned.

[broncofan]

I don't know what Bill Kristol's motives are, but if he's a Republican who is embarrassed that Trump is the nominee and thinks the party should risk a loss of constituents to avoid supporting someone who doesn't represent their values, then good for him.

Unfortunately for him the Republican establishment did not have the balls or the integrity to go along with him and is falling in line with Trump because they don't want Hillary to win and they want to preserve their party long-term. That is natural, but they now have a man as the face of their party who wants to quarantine Muslims and has every neo-nazi and white supremacist thinking he's their great hope and the GOP stands with them.

I think if someone is a moral relativist they cease to be shocked by shocking things. When Trump denigrates a federal judge while mentioning he's of Mexican descent because he gave an unfavorable ruling in a case Trump is personally involved in, when he mocked a reporter with a very serious disability, or lied about people dancing in the streets after 9/11 and claimed the media has suppressed the footage they are not ashamed. But maybe Kristol will provide an alternative for those people who do have shame.

[broncofan]

I am not sure if these are Bill Kristol's reasons but he re-tweeted this isn his twitter timeline. It is the resignation of the communication chair for the young republicans national federation.

https://m.facebook.com/notes/katrina-elaine-j%C3%B8rgensen/resigning-as-communications-chair-from-yrnf/10155923659836515

[flabbybody]

Lol 'young Republican'
ultimate oxymoron

[fred41]

I respect Bill Kristol for not supporting someone just because the other party might win...as I respect many people in the party who won't support Trump. They are not traitors to their party. They are not fools for possibly going another route that may help to guarantee a victory to the opposing party...especially when there are Supreme Court nominations on the line. They are standing on principle...I have to respect that.
I just can't envision a candidate that can be pulled out of a hat, at this late in the game, that no one has heard of so far, that can have the sort of (financial)backing he implies.
I would hope, if this person actually exists, that it's not someone that only a delusional mind would think has the possibility of broad support.

[fred41]

Lol 'young Republican'
ultimate oxymoron
Nothing wrong with young people getting involved in politics....even if it's a party you can't agree with. Young input is how a political party eventually changes. The party you support now was certainly different many years ago.

...and just having one party with no real competition breeds unfettered corruption (how's that DeBlasio administration working out right now?)

[Stavros]

I made the assumption that Kristol was well known in the US, both as the son of Irving Kristol and as a significant Republican intellectual, indeed both he and his father feature prominently in two studies on my bookshelf -Stefan Halper & Jonathan Clarke America Alone. The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge University Press, 2004); and John Micklethwaite & Adrian Wooldridge The Right Nation. Conservative Power in America (The Penguin Press, 2004).

My guess is that Kristol, as part of an elite circle of Republican thinkers is expressing an after-dinner hypothesis some 'insiders' may be working on where the issue is - can they find someone from the military to run? The benefit of the military career is that it is not tainted by Washington politics, and the candidate has little to lose other than a part of their reputation as they were not created by the political machine. Mike Mullen, Stanley McChrystal, maybe even David Petraeus have been touted, and there is the intriguing possibility of Raymond Odierno. However, I think it is probably too late now, and this should have been thought of at an earlier stage of the process. But what do I know?

An article on the elder Kristol -allegedly the father of 'Neo-Conservatism' can be read here-
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2009/09/a-liberal-mugged-by-reality/

Why Americans want a Military General in the White House-
http://time.com/4303985/james-mattis-military-president-campaign-candidates/

[giovanni_hotel]

I think Krystal heard something if he's making this kind of claim unsolicited.
He's not like Trump spouting off his mouth just to hear himself talk.


And that doesn't mean this isn't something that's been in the works for months prior.
We'll see.

[Stavros]

Step forward David French...yes indeed, that David French. Bet you never saw that coming...

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/david-french-donald-trump-bill-kristol-third-party-election-a7060311.html

[fred41]

Step forward David French...yes indeed, that David French. Bet you never saw that coming...

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/david-french-donald-trump-bill-kristol-third-party-election-a7060311.html

Well...at least it wasn't Mitt Romney :lol:

If that's the case, I'm surprised they didn't drag William F. Buckley Jr.s corpse out, dust him off and prop him up.(Although Buckley had a good sense of humor and might have enjoyed that).

Look, if that really is the choice (haven't heard from Kristol yet and French neither), then I hope they're just doing it to give themselves and others who weren't going to vote at all, someone to fill in the blank for at the polls...Not because they're delusional enough to think that it would sway things...because many Trump voters (at least the first few waves) probably don't read 'National Review', 'Weekly Standard, WSJ (or any newspaper at all...lol)...they view commonly perceived intellectuals as smug (probably Europeans who print unfavorable articles about him also) and push for him harder because of, and in spite of, that.
BTW...I believe that is somewhat true of Sanders voters too (except they probably believe that they are intellectuals, because their parents never told them the truth)...they can't see beyond their protest signs and Facebook catch phrases (Oligarchy, Big [bad] Pharma...etc.)...Wall Street is Evilllll, Bankers are nasty folks....lol.

All they would do is possibly sway it more towards Hillary Clinton. That may be the idea, I don't know.

[fred41]

P.S. I don't really believe all Sanders and Trump voters are cartoons. Many are just legitimately tired of the establishment way of running things. They see continuous re-election campaigns and drives for unspeakable amounts of money...and constant strays into the truly (if not illegal) unethical (though, in at least Trumps case, they don't care about ethics either) . They want to poke the establishment in the eye and maybe hope it becomes a wake up call...
...I guess.

[Stavros]

The machine of speculations continues to turn...now the question is who will Trump choose to be Vice-Presidential nominee?...step forward Newton Leroy 'Newt' Gingrich....and why not? He has all the credentials -old, white, conservative, Washington insider, dodgy remarks about women...also on wife no 3....but I like the comment about another alternative-

Other names in the frame include Iowa Senator Joni Ernst (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/05/who-will-be-donald-trumps-running-mate/), a rising star in Republican ranks. She has the perfect political back story after having spent time serving in the military and is well liked by many in the party. She’s also sufficiently bonkers to appeal to Trump, once pulling together a campaign video announcing she “grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/donald-trump-is-about-to-make-his-most-controversial-decision-ye/

hmmm...hogs...castration...three-day seminars at university to teach you how to become a millionaire- isn't this the cue for one of those hysterical Jenners and Kardashians to enter the frame? There are enough of them...

[broncofan]

..I believe that is somewhat true of Sanders voters too (except they probably believe that they are intellectuals, because their parents never told them the truth)...

:D:D Good one. I think the same is true for Sanders himself.

[broncofan]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436222/david-french-not-running-president

[Stavros]

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/436222/david-french-not-running-president

I spent the last several days with some of the best minds in politics.

And it clearly had no impact on his ability to think before writing...looks like the US has lost nothing here, but does appear to confirm a deficit in brilliant people willing to step forward to take on the hardest political jobs.